With the appointment of Parag Agrawal as the new CEO of Twitter, after Jack Dorsey announced that he was leaving the micro-blogging site, India has prominently climbed the corporate ladders globally. Here’s a list of ten Indian-origin CEOs who are scripting history by heading some of the world’s biggest companies and are at the forefront of global giants, including Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella.
1. Sundar Pichai: CEO of Google LLC & Alphabet INC
Sundar Pichai Sundararajan is the chief executive officer of Google and Alphabet Inc. Pichai Sundararajan is an Indian-American. He holds degrees from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, as well as Stanford University, California. Inducted as the new CEO of Google on August 10, 2015, Pichai began his career at Google in 2004 as the successor to Larry Page and Sergey Brin. After leading the development of the Chrome browser as a pioneer and later becoming its Senior Vice President in 2012, he became the Chief of Products for the Android OS.
2. Anjali Sud: CEO of Vimeo
She is an American businesswoman of Indian descent who was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2017. Anjali was previously the General Manager and head of marketing at Adobe. She holds an MBA qualification from Harvard Business School and graduated from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in finance and management.
3. Nikesh Arora: CEO of Palo Alto Networks
A former Google executive, he also served as president of SoftBank Group until 2016. As the head of SoftBank’s operations for the last two years, Arora was named the world’s highest-paid executive. He graduated with a Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering in 1989 from IIT (BHU) in Varanasi. He also holds an MBA from Northeastern University and a degree from Boston College.
4. Satya Nadella: CEO of Microsoft
Satya Nadella was born in Hyderabad and is the executive Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, replacing Steve Ballmer as CEO in 2014 and John W Thompson as chairman in 2021. Nadella earned a degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin. He went on to earn a master’s degree in business management from the University of Chicago.
5. Parag Agrawal: CEO of Twitter
Parag Agarwal, who graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, joined Twitter in 2011 and became the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) by 2018. Moreover, he holds a PhD in philosophy and a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University. Apart from Twitter, the new CEO has also worked for Microsoft and AT&T.
6. Shantanu Narayen: CEO of Adobe Inc.
Since 2007, Narayen has served as Chairman and CEO of Adobe Inc., a company founded in Hyderabad. He earned an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993, after graduating from Osmania University in Hyderabad. Also in 1986, Narayen obtained a master’s in computer science from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. His career began in 1986 at a Silicon Valley startup called Measurex Automation System, and he succeeded Bruce Chizen to become CEO on December 1, 2007. He joined Adobe in 1998 as senior vice president of worldwide product development.
7. Jayshree Ullal: CEO of Arista Networks
The 60-year-old American billionaire is the president and CEO of Arista Network, a cloud networking company. Ullal was born in London and raised in Delhi. She also attended San Francisco State University to earn a BS in electrical engineering. As of October 2008, she was named Ullal CEO & President of Arista Networks, and she was a Barron’s ‘World’s Best CEO’ in 2018 as well as a Fortune ‘Top 20 Business Person in 2019’.
8. Rangarajan Raghuram: CEO of VMware
The company’s CEO, Rangarajan Raghuram, joined VMware in 2003. He was named CEO in 2021. After recording multiple product management and marketing roles, the renowned cloud leader also succeeded Pat Gelsinger as CEO. He earned his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1996 after graduating from IIT Bombay (electrical engineering).
9. Arvind Krishna: CEO of IBM
Krishna has been with IBM for more than two decades. He is also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. On April 6, 2020, he will replace Virginia Rometty as CEO after completing his PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
10. Ajaypal Singh Banga: CEO of MasterCard
Since the 1990s, Banga has been a pioneer for MasterCard, and currently serves as its executive chairman, having previously served as its CEO until December 2020. His father also served in the Indian Army in Pune, Maharashtra, and 62-year-old Banga is the former Chairman of United States-India Business Council. He is originally from Jalandhar, Punjab. After graduating from St Stephen’s College of Delhi University and earning an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. Banga also attended Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet.